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Wes

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So I've recently started volunteering with an unnamed fire department in Bexar County. I've noticed a VERY interesting thing. Our department is on the San Antonio/Bexar County system and we use the Harris handheld radios and many of our trucks have the Harris radios. BUT.... some of our trucks have Motorola radios with the control heads showing the same radio talkgroups as the Harris/EDACS radios. (I know we also have the ability to patch the EDACS system to the LCRA P25 system.)

So, my question is this.... is the Harris/EDACS system being linked full-time to the LCRA P25 system, the San Antonio UASI system, or something else? Or is there an unlikely possibility that Motorola makes radios compatible with EDACS ProVoice?
 

motorola_otaku

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Well, depending on which agency you're with they may be primary on LCRA P25. Harris has been making P25-capable radios for years now.
 

rattlerbb01

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So I've recently started volunteering with an unnamed fire department in Bexar County. I've noticed a VERY interesting thing. Our department is on the San Antonio/Bexar County system and we use the Harris handheld radios and many of our trucks have the Harris radios. BUT.... some of our trucks have Motorola radios with the control heads showing the same radio talkgroups as the Harris/EDACS radios. (I know we also have the ability to patch the EDACS system to the LCRA P25 system.)

So, my question is this.... is the Harris/EDACS system being linked full-time to the LCRA P25 system, the San Antonio UASI system, or something else? Or is there an unlikely possibility that Motorola makes radios compatible with EDACS ProVoice?

Is your department in the northeast cities around Randolph or elsewhere in the county? Schertz, Cibolo, Live Oak, U City all use LCRA, but Converse and every other department in the county use EDACS. Could be that the Harris radios affiliate to the EDACS system and the Motos to the SA P25 Overlay, although that would not be a standard set up since they all use EDACS for primary. Is it one or the other in those trucks, or are the Motos second radios?
 

Wes

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North central end of Bexar County. The trucks have either an EDACS or a Motorola radio in each. Some also have a VHF radio as well.
 

Sanscanman

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I think it is Bexar/Bulverde that uses Bex Fire on LCRA with calls out 281 towards Comal.. they would be closer to Smithson Valley for coverage up that way.
 

motorola_otaku

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The trucks have either an EDACS or a Motorola radio in each.
Again, just because the radio says HARRIS doesn't necessarily mean it's operating on EDACS. Everything from the M7100/P7100 on can operate on both EDACS/PV and P25 trunking systems, provided they have the features enabled.
 

Dark_Side

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Bexar Has Both p25 700 Mhz Phase-1
And EDACS/ESK System they are patched
Some agency's are buying apx8000 radio's
And use the p25 as entry-level and casted
To Edacs
 

otter9309

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With P25 being active in Bexar county, many agencies are no longer held hostage to Harris equipment. The Feds, DPS, and some locals have been switching to the APX platform from Moto.
Moto wiped the floor with Harris during the equipment evaluation on the new system.
 

KevinC

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With P25 being active in Bexar county, many agencies are no longer held hostage to Harris equipment. The Feds, DPS, and some locals have been switching to the APX platform from Moto.
Moto wiped the floor with Harris during the equipment evaluation on the new system.

But I thought setting off the emergency when the radio got wet was a feature??? :unsure:
 

otter9309

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But I thought setting off the emergency when the radio got wet was a feature??? :unsure:
Ha!!!
They kept that same feature on the XL200 along with a whopping 4-5 hour battery life. Every officer has to carry a spare battery to make it through a shift.
 

tyler3328

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Many of the agencies are tied to LCRA system. But SA is dumping EDACS and switching to a P25 system. There is the SA overlay system and it’s always patched through. Most of the agencies are switching to APX for the multiband operation AND for the ADP encryption which most of the counties around Bexar uses. I program for many agencies in the area.
 

NC5267

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SAPD has been issuing out the Harris XL200 multiband radios for the past few months to patrol guys. I had heard from the SA Fire radio guys that they want and plan on using APX radios when the new system comes online. Also, I have seen Castle Hills PD using the Harris XL200 radios as well as Leon Valley PD. It seems that for the moment law enforcement users on the system are switching to the Harris multiband radio. The P25 phase II system is being built out by Harris so well have to wait and see when the system goes live how many Harris vs Motorola we get. At least San Antonio and Bexar County wise.

The overlay P25 is mainly used by DPS and the feds. An APX has to affiliate with a talk group on the system for it to show up on a certain site. With more DPS in town were getting more activity on the overlay system.
 

Dark_Side

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Robert alderman
Bexar county radio got boot out door

Fernando Luna moved on
SAPD Communication

A big change to normals
 

Firekite

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Most of the agencies are switching to APX for the multiband operation AND for the ADP encryption
While I’ve paid for ProVoice on my 436HP and have no problem with its continued use, I really hope they don’t switch to encrypted systems. I know that’s a whole sore point in general, especially for DPS, but I guess there’s nothing short of a miracle that can stop it if they want it bad enough.
 

jasonk

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I would like to set up an SDR in Bexar County for the main purpose of monitoring the FD activity. I will not be able to get Edacs Pro Voice with my setup - but the P25 stuff will be fine. Can i expect to hear a majority of the County units on this system ?

Anyone have a timeline when San Antonio may switch over to a P25 system ?

Thanks
 

tkowalik

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I would like to set up an SDR in Bexar County for the main purpose of monitoring the FD activity. I will not be able to get Edacs Pro Voice with my setup - but the P25 stuff will be fine. Can i expect to hear a majority of the County units on this system ?

Anyone have a timeline when San Antonio may switch over to a P25 system ?

Thanks

I’m not an expert on this but my observation has been that BCFA is always patched to the P25 overlay on the Toepperwein site. I monitor that one and Austin Hwy. Sometimes the Austin Hwy site doesn’t carry BCFA but I’ve never heard Toepperwein not carry BCFA. As far as fireground channels, as long as a radio is affiliated to the P25 site, the channel gets patched. Again, Toepperwein is almost always carried but Austin Hwy not so much.

For example, I have a unication pager with tones from Converse (yes you can set to alert for Converse) down to 127 with fireground channels 4, 7, and EMS programmed exclusively to Toepperwein and rarely miss anything. If I have Austin Hwy programmed and the pager locks onto that site, you could miss 50% or more traffic.
 

tkowalik

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Anyone have a timeline when San Antonio may switch over to a P25 system ?

Thanks

Here’s a link to everything you want to know:

 

Firekite

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Thanks for the link, but that’s a data dump. I think the answer is that IF (big if) everything goes according to plan they’ll be migrating over time and plan to be fully switched over by the end of August 2021. Does that sound right? Not sure if they’re planning to do a mixed system for some period of time or a hard cut-over. It seems like the logistics would be very painful to do a hard cut-over. That kind of info doesn’t appear to be there, nor any mention of encryption one way or the other. Hopefully someone from the contractor with intimate knowledge will be willing to come on here and share details at some point about all of that (and hopefully populate TG info and such).

If you ever wonder why not everyone has already switched over to a new P25 Phase II system and is running some ancient ProVoice setup EOL’ed by Harris, note that it’s over $80M just in up front costs and over $27M in known maintenance over 15 years, for a contract worth $108M. That’s a lot of money for radios.
 

Polara1965

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Can anyone recommend a hand held scanner ner that worked for schertz universal city and Bexar county I see so many want to get the right one
 

Sanscanman

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Sure thing.

You should look at either the BCD325P2 ( small handheld), BCD436HP, or SDS100( both full-size handhelds). All three of these models are capable of demodulating the ProVoice protocol that the City of San Antonio and Bexar County public safety and local Government currently use. The ProVoice option is one of the three additional voice options these models offer that can be unlocked via an additional payment to Uniden. NXDN and DMR are the other two paid vocoder options for these models. You mentioned Schertz, and Universal City, these two cities are part of the LCRA P25 system and require no additional upgrade to be able to monitor them. Schertz is in Guadalupe County and their Sheriffs office operates on a separate system that would require the NXDN upgrade to monitor sheriff operation. The rest of Guadalupe county uses analog and P25 for public safety operations.

Either of these three models would handle your current needs and should allow you to continue to monitor COSA/Bexar operation when they transition to their new system ( estimated around 2021).

Below are links to the associated wiki entries for each model. Take a little time and look them over and hit us up with any additional question you may have.

BCD325P2

BCD436HP

SDS100
 
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